Synagogues' religious schools adopt innovative program

Two local synagogues are using the ShalomLearning program for its religious… (Submitted photo )

February 10, 2014|By Sergio Carmona, Staff Writer

Two synagogues in Miami-Dade County are using an innovative program for their religious schools.

This program from ShalomLearning, a non-profit organization, combines traditional Jewish religious education with online learning activities to make Hebrew school more engaging for students, more accessible for families and more effective for synagogues. The organization recently partnered with the Center for Advancement in Jewish Education in Miami and last month, Temple Judea in Coral Gables and Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach started using the program for their religious schools.

"This is really cutting-edge innovative work and what's exciting is that we had two schools that were ready to jump in mid-year," said Rabbi Daniel Young, congregational school market manager for CAJE-Miami. "We're hoping that their experience will enable more schools to participate in the fall and that we can grow this as a true community-wide initiative across Miami."

Young said that CAJE-Miami's goal in using the program is to "encourage, foster and support 21st century experience" for today's Jewish learners and congregational schools.

"We feel ShalomLearning is one of the main platforms for doing that [encouraging, fostering and supporting 21st century experience] in its presentation of the curriculum and it's flexible use of technology while maintaining a commitment to the community among the participants," he added.

Debi Himelfarb, vice president of operations for ShalomLearning, said "Our goals are to make learning about Jewish values more fun for the kids and more relative to their daily lives."

"Our curriculum was developed with technology in mind," she added. "From the beginning, the curriculum was designed to be relative to today's kids' lives and to use technology and it's all intertwined. It's not some older curriculum where we're throwing in technology to make it more modern. It was always meant to be modern. The other thing that makes our model work well is that we let the synagogues decide what works best for their community."

Himelfarb also praised the two local synagogues that implemented the program in January.

"They are not only making a significant change, but they're also doing it in the middle of the school year so these synagogues are ready to embrace this type of change," she said.

Beth Young, director of education at Temple Judea, discussed the program's positive reception at the synagogue.

"We've already switched so that our in-class sessions are utilizing the ShalomLearning curriculum and the feedback on that has been very positive from both our teacher and parents who are expressing the takeaway that the kids are coming home with," she said.

Young added that the curriculum materials are incredibly relative to the lives of students today.

"It utilizes contemporary videos and references in pop culture to really make the connections between the values and the lives of the students and it uses technology which are kids are around all of the time," she added.

For more information on the program, visit http://shalomlearning.com/.